A horse woman who can afford one horse…and that horse is retired

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Need Halloween Costume Ideas For You and Your Horse?

The alternate title to this post easily could have been “What crazy horse people with no lives do to torture their animals”

So as you all know…I love costume classes. LOVE THEM!

Here was my unicorn and princess costume from last year.

So this year when I found out that they were having a costume class at the In Hand Show I was going to with the borrowed pinto, I knew I had to do it! Luckily, the Pinto’s owner is a drama teacher so as soon as I mentioned costume class she was already off and running. Anyone who has ever done a costume class can tell you that the hardest part of any costume class is the idea. Once you know what you want to do it is just a matter of getting everything together and making it work. Genius struck when we were on vacation in Harry Potter world…and no…it is not what you think. Want a hint?

After walking around Universal Studios several days in a row we saw so many people with “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” shirts that my brain started turning. The pinto is black and white after all. How hard could it be to put together a cat in the hat inspired costume? Well, it turns out that while it can be a little tricky to figure out how you are going to do it, once you figure it out it is not a hard costume to make. The horses costume was by far the hardest part.

1) Used white bell boots (left over from the days of my victory gallops) with little child sized white gloves attached to them using velcro
2) Black polo wraps to give the look of black “arms” as well as protection in case the horse gets upset looking at all the other scary costumes around.
3) A red tie. This was actually a hard idea to come up with. I can barely sew. I had wanted to make the whole thing out of fabric, but after 4 failed attempts I knew I had to try something else. I ended up making my poor mother help me make a v-shaped fabric piece that I attached with velcro (based on a neck ribbon). To that I found some glitter encrusted foam (what I used to make my unicorn horn last year) that I cut out into a bow pattern.
4) The crucial part of this costume was the hat! The pinto’s owner was able to attach the hat to the bridle in 4 places and practice with it so it would not come off. Lots of sugar was involved in making our black and white friend a willing participant.

Add in two humans with the giggles in red from head to toe and you have yourselves a costume!

So I tried to take pictures of the other participants in the costume class (there were 7 in all), but being a part of the class myself I did not to to take pictures of all of them. Here are a few though…

Here you have an “Indian” and a Painted Pony

There was also a Butterfly Fairy (For those of you that know me, yes that is the Fresians Owner…The Pinto Owner and I tag teamed her to talk her in to coming to the show)

There was a Princess with her Prince Charming (when she walked up I thought she had it in the bag)

The last one up to the ring was the Mardi Gras float! What a great idea! The woman had a girl riding as a Mardi Gras Princess…it was SOOOO cute!

But even with all that stiff competition…

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, I get to keep my undefeated title in equine costume classes going for yet another year!

I’m judging a ride this year with a Halloween theme. I’m going to have a different costume for each of the three days. It has been hard to get ideas. I have to be able to do full physicals on horses without totally freaking them out, get in and out of trucks repeatedly, and spend a lot of time in the woods. I think I have it all figured out though. Stay tuned for pictures.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! i love the costumes – you guys look great! i’ve never done a costume class but it must have been a blast. not to mention, i’m impressed the horses handled all of it so well – they all look perfectly happy🙂